Joey Buttafuoco was the Long Island auto repair shop owner whose sexual encounters with teenage Amy Fisher generated tabloid headlines in the early 1990s after she shot his wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco, in the face.
The infamous case burst into the headlines when Amy, then 17 and in high school, shot Mary Jo on the porch of her home in Massapequa, New York. Mary Jo survived the attack, and she’s telling her story on an episode of 20/20 on November 8, 2019. Amy was dubbed the “Long Island Lolita” by tabloid media.
Where is Joey Buttafuoco now? Today, Joey is speaking about the saga to 20/20. However, he’s hardly led a secluded life. Rather, he’s given many interviews over the years. He’s also ended up charged criminally with different offenses. Today, he’s 63 years old and lives in California.
Here’s what you need to know:
Today, Joey Says His Relationship With Amy Fisher Was ‘Inappropriate’
With the producers of @ABC2020 for their truly compelling look back at the Amy Fisher-Joey Buttafuoco saga. (For months, it was all I covered back in 1992.) “Growing Up Buttafuoco” is a special, two-hour edition of 20/20 and airs tonight at 9 on ABC.
Joey acknowledged to ABC News that his relationship with Fisher had been “inappropriate,” but added, “That’s as far as I’m gonna go with that.” He’s working on a movie about his life, ABC reports, quoting him as saying, “I’m not that kinda guy that’s gonna sit here and blame anything on anything and how I got here. I made my own choices. I made my own life by my choices, whether they were good or they were bad. I made some good choices and I made some bad choices.”
His daughter with Mary Jo, Jessie, told ABC that her dad is “in a growth phase where he’s in therapy and he’s healing.” The couple also had a son but he goes by a different name and has led the most private life of the family members. In 2005, Joey married a Croatian-born woman named Evanka Franjko. They met at his auto body shop, the New York Post reported. Joey’s wife Evanka Buttafuoco once filed for divorce but withdrew the petition.
TONIGHT | What do new interviews with Joey, Mary Jo and their daughter Jessie Buttafuoco reveal? Well, here’s what Jessie says, “Most people think they know this story, but they have no clue – and it’s crazy!” ‘Growing Up Buttafuoco’ premieres tonight at 9|8c on @ABC.
In the Amy Fisher case, Joey was indicted on 19 charges, including statutory rape, endangering a child’s welfare, and sodomy. According to People Magazine, he spent a few months in jail. The core of the accusations against Joey: Amy was only 16 at the time of their encounters, and Joey was 36. According to ABC News, Joey Buttafuoco pleaded guilty to one count of statutory rape. After his release, he was arrested on accusations he solicited a prostitute in California. For a time, Mary Jo and the couple’s kids moved to Los Angeles with Joey.
Joey & Amy’s Husband Got in a Video Fistfight
Joey hasn’t shunned the limelight. In 2017, Joey and Amy’s husband got into a fistfight, which you can see in the above video.
He appeared on Celebrity Boxing, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Judge Alex, and in various movies. In 2006, according to ABC, Mary Jo and Joey appeared on Entertainment Tonight and Insider, even sitting “across from Fisher as part of a reunion special.” IMDB reports that he appeared in The Underground Comedy Movie (1999), Finding Forrester (2000) and Better Than Ever (1997).
According to Nicki Swift.com, Joey also appeared on Celebrity Boxing, defeating former WWE wrestler Chyna, and even boxed Fisher’s husband, Lou Bellera, on Celebrity Fight Night. In 2012, according to TMZ, Joey was talking about writing a tell-all book.
Mary Jo divorced Joey in 2003. According to People Magazine, Mary Jo still suffers from the attack; her face is partially paralyzed, she’s deaf in an ear, and the bullet is still in her neck.
When the couple divorced, Joey said to USA Today, “It’s OK. To move on you’ve got to get a divorce. She’s with another guy. His name is Stew. I’ve been with a girl for awhile, too.”
At that time, USA Today reported, Joey had “returned to the car repair business, and now works with his adult son.” Joey has had trouble with the law throughout the years.
“I do all the Ferraris,” he said to USA Today then. “I do a little TV and movies but that doesn’t put a lot of butter on my bread.” That same year, CNN reported that Joey was accused of “three counts of insurance fraud and one count of grand theft” involving his business, California Collision, a Chatsworth auto body shop. In 2004, he received a year jail sentence on those charges.
Joey and Mary Jo’s daughter Jessie Buttafuoco was only 9 at the time of the shooting, and she’s struggled with the family’s infamy. “Growing up for me, the performing arts was my outlet. When I was on stage, I was a character. I wasn’t Jessie Buttafuoco, and it was so nice to get out of that reality,” Jessie told “20/20.” “My friends call me ‘Showtime’ because I can be on. I can make you laugh and I can make you happy and smile. But the real me inside is hurting, is in pain and is trying to figure out life.”
In 2006, Joey was accused of violating terms of his probation “by possessing ammunition found during a search last August of his San Fernando Valley home,” CBS News reported. A 2007 news article by Fox News says he served three months in jail on that accusation.
Amy Fisher has had continued struggles in her life. According to People Magazine, Fisher spent seven years in jail. After she was released from jail in 1999, she married (and divorced), had three kids, and worked as a newspaper columnist. She wrote a book. She has worked as a porn actress and stripper and moved back to Long Island after years spent in Florida, according to The New York Post. The Post described her husband as a former police officer turned wedding videographer. They divorced in 2015.
In 2009, Mary Jo Buttafuoco authored a book called Getting It Through My Thick Skull: Why I Stayed, What I Learned, and What Millions of People Involved with Sociopaths Need to Know. You can find it for sale on Amazon here. In the book, Mary Jo discusses how she was addicted to painkillers and recovered through the Betty Ford Center. It also discusses her “overdue decision to leave Joey and start over again in California—3,000 miles from her support system.”
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